Boosting
IQ with the Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Gamma-Linolenic Acid (Oil of Evening
Primrose)
There have been several intriguing nutritional methods
announced over the past month that may possibly boost IQ (in some cases,
if preliminary research holds up under closer scrutiny, possibly boosting
IQ significantly). By now, enough new (to me) material seems to have
accumulated to warrant a closer look.
The most significant set of results seems to be stemming from
Oxford University
studies in Durham County, England that involved supplementing the diets of
"more than 100 junior schoolchildren between eight and 12 in County
Durham" with a combination of fish oil (presumably, the omega-3 fatty
acids, eicosapentaenoic acid... EPA... and docosahexaenoic acid...DHA), and oil
of evening primrose (gamma-linolenic acid)".
The original BBC article when I first read it told of
dramatic enhancements in, for example, the reading and spelling levels of the
students taking the supplements. It mentioned that up to 40% of the children
showed remarkable improvements.
A few hours later, this article had disappeared, replaced by
the article linked above. What I suspect happened was that when the article
appeared, the principal investigator(s) in the study read the article with
horror. For one thing, it hasn't yet been revealed which students are taking the
fatty acid capsules and which students are taking placebo capsules. For another,
it would be considered a breach of professional ethics to report one's results
in the media before subjecting them to a peer review.Can the Omega-3
Fats Improve on Prozac?
Now, a
new set of studies have shown that the omega-3 fats are as effective as
Prozac at improving mood. And it's just been announced that Prozac may achieve
its results by stimulating the creation of new neurons within the brain! Do fish
oils stimulate the production of new neurons? In 1979, when
Nathan Pritikin introduced the Pritikin low-fat diet, the conventional medical
wisdom was that you needed very little fat in your diet. The body needed three
essential fatty acids: linoleic acid, linolenic acid, and arachnidonic acid.
Arachnidonic acid could be synthesized by the body, so you didn't really need
it. If necessary, the body could also synthesize linolenic acid from linoleic
acid, so all you really needed was linoleic acid. Furthermore, every living
organism has a certain amount of these fats in them. After all, the cell walls
and other cellular components are made of fats, so fats are present in
everything you eat, including such non-fatty foods as lettuce and radishes.
That's not true!
As the second article observes,
"Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated oils that
cannot be made by the body and are derived primarily from seafood. The fatty
acid with most direct influence on brain development and function is DHA."
And a little farther down,
"The DHA from omega-3 makes up the walls of neurons,
Hibbeln said. 'The body cannot manufacture DHA so it has to get it from our
diet.'"
Also, in the same article,
"At Sheffield University in England, Dr. Malcolm Peet
gave omega-3 fatty acids to 70 depressed patients who had not been helped by
drugs such as Prozac. After 12 weeks, 69 percent of the patients showed marked
improvement compared with 25 percent given placebos."
And in the United States,
"'We've been very impressed by the response rates we've
observed,' said Dr. David Mischoulon, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General
Hospital who has overseen an omega-3 clinical trial. 'We believe there is
definitely something to these treatments.'"
And later,
"'We're confident that the results he had were
positive,' said Mischoulon. 'We've also observed similar responses in other
people. So it's pretty clear in our minds that these treatments work.'"
"Preliminary studies suggest 1 gram a day of omega-3
fatty acids can be an effective treatment, whether in the form of a nutritional
supplement available at most health-food stores or simply by eating fish —
especially salmon, sardines or tuna — several times a week."

The omega-3 fatty acids are blood
thinners, like aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamin E, gingko biloba, and coumadin. If
you are already taking any of these blood thinners, you might want to be aware
of this fact. (Tommie Jean is scheduled for a minor, day-surgery operation on
Monday. She was warned last Monday to avoid, aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamin E, and
all other blood thinners until after the operation.)
One other caveat that should be mentioned is that fish oils,
like polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, produce free radicals. You'll
want to be sure that you're getting ample antioxidants, "particularly,
vitamin E", along with the fish oils.
What's good about dietary measures like fish is that they're
something you can eat day in and day out. They aren't drugs per se, but have
been part of our natural diets for thousands of years. Also, whereas some herbs
and drugs need to be taken every few hours for maximum effect, foods often work
their magic for an extended period of time.
The omega-3 oils were originally thought to be beneficial
only to the circulatory system. It had been observed as early as 1908 that
Eskimos ate nothing but meat and fatty fish, and yet, they had no cases of
coronary artery disease. The connection between their non-existent coronary
artery disease and the omega-3 fatty acids was first noticed in 1930. However,
it wasn't until the early 1960's that Danish medical researchers began to
aggressively pursue this relationship, and to advertise it to the world. The
original idea was that the omega-3 oils acted as blood thinners, and inhibited
the development of arterial plaques. (In 1979, when I investigated this topic in
the Journal of Clinical Nutrition and in the cardiovascular journals,
there was no hint that the omega-3 acids were essential to the nervous system
and the circulatory system in the same way that the omega-6 fats are
quintessential to the muscles.) Apparently, sometime between 1979 and the
present, it was learned that the omega-3 oils play a much more fundamental role
than acting as just a blood thinner.
Here are tables
listing the amounts of fatty acids in various oils.
I generally try to get my omega-3 oils from eating fish, and
particularly, from eating salmon. One of the problems with these cold-water
pelagic fish is the pollutants concentrated in them. There have been warnings
about the mercury in tuna. A local medical doctor has pointed out that canned
salmon is probably better from the standpoint of toxic pollutants than salmon
steaks. He observed that the salmon that are canned are generally the smallest
salmon, and that these are lower in the food chain than the larger salmon that
are harvested for salmon steaks. Therefore, canned salmon should be less
polluted. However, one of the supermarkets around here sells farm-raised salmon
(as well as ocean-caught salmon), and I think I'll switch back to that. I know
that won't be polluted with PCB's. It's more work than using canned salmon. I
have to cut up the salmon fillets right away, and microwave them, and freeze
them, or I'd have all the cats in the neighborhood lined up outside our back
door (not to mention forcing Tommie Jean into to a motel).
There isn't much that's as aromatic as old fish.
But that way, all I have to do is thaw, heat the salmon
portions, mix up some tarter sauce, hold my nose and eat them.
Just kidding! Just kidding! Freshly cooked salmon steak is
quite good.
I have read that salmon is unlike the other omega-3 fish in
that it doesn't become contaminated the way that other fish do. (It may be that
the salmon stay in deep water except when they come to spawn, and the pollutants
are found near the shorelines where all our polluted rivers debouch into
the world's oceans.) But I've only read that once. Since they're available here
in town, it's probably going to be a good idea to go with the farm-raised fish
because you know they won't pick up pollutants.

These Studies
Seem to Demonstrate That Dietary Strategies Can Produce Marked Changes in Mental
Acuity
I'm excited that something has been found that shows such
promising results. I'm also a bit perturbed at the conventional medical wisdom
that I received 24 years ago that was obviously very wrong.Has This Worked
for Me?
Tommie Jean and I have been taking various nutrients and
supplements for a while now. What's happening with us?
This is very subjective, but I feel exceedingly good,
energetic, and clear-minded, and my guess is that the supplements may be
responsible.
There's one examination that might be used as a litmus test,
and that's the digit-symbol test on the various versions of the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale. The digit/symbol subtest consists of nine symbols that are
listed just below the nine digits 1 through 9. Then below this small
digit/symbol conversion table are four rows with 25 random digits per row, and
with a space below each digit. You are supposed to enter the symbol from the
digit/symbol conversion table into the space below each digit. For example, in
the small digit conversion table at the top of the page, a "1" might
have a "+" below it, a "2" might have an "X" below
it; a "3" might have an "O" below it, and so forth. You then
have 90 seconds to fill in 90 of the 100 blank symbol boxes in the four rows of
25 digits. That means that you basically have to learn the digit/symbol
connections, because you don't have time to look up each digit, check the symbol
below it, and then draw the symbol into the blank symbol box. You have to go
faster than that. So it's really a test of short-term-learning speed, and it
falls off rapidly with age.
Of course, you can make up your own set of nine symbols, and
your own set of four rows of more or less randomly chosen digits, and take this
test, timing yourself. (I don't think that practice will help you. I think it
taps into fundamental neurological learning rates that tend to slow down as you
grow older.)Huperzine-A
I'm trying Huperzine-A
again.
As I've previously mentioned, I've tried the herb Huperzine-A,
made from Chinese club moss, twice before. Both times, after taking a
50-milligram capsule once a day for two or three weeks, I became somewhat dizzy.
This time, I'm taking it once every other day. If that works for a few weeks,
then I'll graduate to a once-a-day administration to see if there are adverse
side effects (viz., vertigo). If not, it may be that the imbalance I experienced
wasn't really related to Huperzine-A. If so, then it will be pretty solid
evidence that I, at least, experience unpleasant side effects from Huperzine-A.
Huperzine-A is said to be more effective that either of the
first two drugs developed for Alzheimer's Disease, Tacrine and Aricept. All
three of these agents inhibit the breakdown of acetylcholine in the brain. (The
third drug, Reminyl (galantamine), is extracted from the gladiolus bulb. It's both an
acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and a nicotinamide potentiator.)
There is much more to come. There are other herbs and agents
such as creatine and lemon balm that need to be discussed, but I'll have to
research them a bit further.
Besides, I'm getting slee-e-e-eepy.

10-3-2003
Today, I looked up lemon balm, piracetam, and phosphatidylserine.
University of Maryland Medicine

Medications

Nutrition and Dietary Supplements
Vitamins E and C:
"Two large trials suggest that vitamins E and C may prevent the onset of
AD, improve cognitive skills in healthy individuals, and decrease the symptoms
of dementia. In one of the studies, more than 600 healthy individuals were
followed for an average of 4 years. A total of 91 people developed AD, but none
of the participants who took vitamin E or C supplements developed the
disease."